Green-fruit brace



Apri! 14, 1925. 1,533,695. S. L. CONLAN ET AL GREEN "FRUIT BRACE 2 Sheets-Sheet vl Filed Dec. v29, 1923 A Worm/,5y

April 14, 192s'.

s. I coNLAN ET Al.

GREEN FRUIT BRACE Filed Dec. 29, 192s 2 sheets-sheet 2 Patented Apr. 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.A

SIDNEY L. CONLAN .AND HER-BERT F. PLOUGI-I, OF INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA.

GREEN-FRUIT BRACE.

Application iiled December 29, 1923. Serial No. 688,430.

To all l071.01m 'it may concern.'

Be it hereby known that we, SIDNEY L. Cox LAN and HERBERT F. PLoUeH, citizens of the United States, and residents of Inglewood, inthe county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented anew and useful GreenwFruit Brace, of which the following is a specification.

rPhis invention relates more particularly to the transportation of green fruit.

An object of our invention is the provision of means for securely bracing fruit carriers in refrigerator cars to prevent same from shifting and becoming damaged in shipping.

A second object is the elimination of waste lumber entailed every time the. wooden braces, now in common use, arediscarded after the car is unloaded.

A third object is the saving of a large portion of the time required to install the usual wooden braces.

)L fourth object is the provision of an exceedingly simple means for preventing lateral shifting of the device.

We accomplish these results in the manner set forth in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings. in which:

Figure 1 is a plan of the mid section of a refrigerator car with the top cut away, Figure 2 is a transverse section along the line 2-2 in Figure 1. Figure 3 is a side elevation of the device looking through the car door. Figure l is an enlarged elevation of our device. Figure 5 is an enlarged sec- (ion through the lower portion of our device showing the hinge joint and nail slot. Figure (i is a section taken along the line 6*@ in Fig Figure 7 shows a modified form of brace extended. Figure 8 shows same closed.

Similar numbers of reference refer to the suine parts throughout the several views.

Referring in detail to the drawing, we have illustrated portions of a refrigerator car, including the top 10, the bottom 11 and sides 12 and 13 and the fruit carriers or cases 14 in order to show how our device is employed.

Referring more particularly to the device itself, it will be observed that it is employed an expanding brace between a row of cases at one end of the car and an opposite row of cases at the other end of the car, and as many of our devices are required as there are rows of cases in thewidth of the car.

The device itself consists of a pair of upy right channel irons 15 between which are placed three sets of aclrscrews consisting of a screw 1G, a nut 17 and a tubular pedestal 18. rEhe pedestal 18 is hinged to a channel iron 15 by means of the foot 19 which is provided with a rivet 20 secured to the sides of the member 15. The screw 16 is provided with a foot 21 .whose rivet 22 hinges same to the opposite member 15. The feet 19 and 21 are rounded at one corner 23 and square at the projecting corner 24, which permits the device to fold up when not in use and be stored by hanging same from suitable straps or hooks on the ceiling of the refrigerator car until the car is again packed with fruit.

At 'suitable intervals along the upright channels 15 we have provided slots 25 of siiflicient length to enable the packer to drive a nail 2G through the slot into any desired portion of a fruit carrier he desires, the object, of course` being to prevent lateral shifting of the device .in case the shipment lreceives unusually rough handling, which nuiy be suflicient to loosen the brace enough to allow the device to move laterally.

This particular means of preventing lateral movement can be accomplished in numerous ways without departing from the spirit of our invention, among which would be the fastening of cleats against the cases on either side of the uprights 15, or by having sharp projections formed on the outer faces of the. members 15 which would bite into the cases, or by numerous` other contrivances.

The operation of our device is as follows 2` The fruit is packed into refrigerator cars beginning at the ends and piling same in layers which are separated by spacer bars 27 which lit snugly betweenthe side walls 12 and 13 ofthe car. These bars prevent lateral movement of the cases.

`When the car is filledto the desired height, with the exception of a short space directly in front of the doors, one of our devices is placed, as above suggested, between opposite piles of cases and the nuts 17 are forced against the pedestals 18, thereby forcing the uprights 15 apart the desired amount. Each longitudinal row of cases is treated in a similar manner until the entire carload is rigidly held between the side walls and the end walls ot the refrigerator' car.

Needless to say that this operation is much more rapid than the old method of putting in 2 X s for uprights andV cutting other 2 X ts of suiiicient length that they may be driven between the uprights in a manner to force the cases into a rigid position. It can readily be imagined that some little degree ot skill is required to judge the exact amount that must be required on these wooden braces, which must then be toe-nailed into the uprights and the upright themselves must be fastened to hold them in a vertical position, as 'of course is also required in our device, and this is accomplished when wooden uprights are used by the simple expedient ot' driving nails through thef X ats into the cases themselves.

The 'principal feature of our invention, of course, is an expanding brace, the production ot' which may be accomplished by the use of other devices than the screw, without departing from the' spirit of our invention.

ln Figures 7 and 8 we have illustrated a modiied form of brace in which the members 15 arecapable of working at greater ranges than is possible with the brace previously described, although its operating principle is the same.

The screw 16 is attached to one member 15, as before, and slips into the tube 18A and is provided with a nut 17. The tube 18A is threaded outside but not inside and screws intolthe member 28, which is threaded internally, and is provided with a plug end 29A which hinges to a member 15, as does the member 19.

Holes 29 are formed in the tube 2S, and the key 3 is provided which can pass through one of the holes Q9 into a suitable hole in the tube 18A to prevent its rotation when the brace begins to tighten. The end of the member 18A may be provided with Aslots instead of holes to facilitate the insertion of the key 30.

The operation of the device is similar to that previously described.

In manufacturing this form of device it may be preferable to upset the end ot the member 28 to receive a wrench, and in some cases'it may be desirable to thread only the portion of the tube 2.8 inside of the end 31, which can be of reduced diameter, Jfor the purpose of saving labor.

lhile we have thus illustrated and described our invention it is not our desire or .intention to limit ourselves to this precise form of construction, but intend to cover all such 'forms and modifications as fall l:fairly within the appended claims.

lVhat we claim is:

1. A plurality of spaced green fruit braces adapted to be placed longitudinally in the doorway of a fruit car between boxes piled at each end of the car, each of said braces having, in combination, a pair of upright channel members; a plurality of vertically spaced braces hinged at each end between said channels, each of said braces including a hollow pedestal hinged to one 01"". the uprights; a screw telescoping intosaid pedestal; a nut on said screw touching said pedestal; and hinges joining said channels to said pedestal and screw, said hinges having stop means on opposite sides thereof adapted to permit all of the braces to `told in one direction only.

il. In a green fruit brace, the combination of a pair ot spaced channel members having loosely hinged to one ot saine a jplurality ot tubular pedestals, said hinges permitting said pedestals to swing to a perpendicular to said channel in one direction; screws telescoping into said pedestals, each of said screws hinging to the opposite channel, said last mentioned hinges having stops opposite said iirst mentioned hinged stops; and a nut on each of said crews.

3. A green fruit brace having, in combin-ation, a pair of spaced channel irons having their legs turned inwardly; a plurality of pedestals hinged to one of said channels between its legs; a plurality of screws hinged to the second channel between its legs and telescoping into said pedestal; a nut on each ot said screws, said channels having slots cut into their box-engaging sides in order to permit the driving of nails through said channels into any portion of a box.

l. A green fruit brace consisting of a pair of' upright channel members, in combination with three horizontal expanding braces hinged between said uprights and adapted to torce same apart, each of said expanding braces consisting of a hollow pedestal hinged to one upright; a tube screwing into said pedestal; a screw telescoping within said tube and hinged to the second upright; a nut on said screw adapted to be forced against said tube and expand said'b'race; and means for locking said tube against rotation.

SIDNEY L. GONLAN. HERBERT F. PLOUGH. 

